You are here

For at least one night, LeBron James quieted a lot of critics. The much-maligned Heat star produced a performance for the ages, willing his team to a 98-79 win over the Celtics tonight at the Garden in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. James' effort sets up a winner-take-all Game 7 in Miami on Saturday night.

It didn't matter who the Celtics put on James -- Paul Pierce, Mickael Pietrus, even Brandon Bass -- they had no answer. He killed them in the post and was even more deadly from the perimeter, nailing jumper after jumper. James finished with 45 points, 14 rebounds and five assists while playing every second until he was removed with 3:11 remaining and the Heat up by 22 points.

James scored 30 points in the first half as Miami opened up a 55-42 lead. The Celtics expended a lot of energy in the third quarter to try to get back into it but were unable to cut the deficit to single digits. Ultimately, the C's were unable to shave anything off of Miami's lead and entered the fourth trailing 74-61. Dwyane Wade, who was quiet for the first three quarters, scored the first four points of the fourth to remove any thoughts of a Celtics comeback. Wade finished with 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting.

Rajon Rondo gamely tried to match James and had 19 points and five assists in the first half while playing all 24 minutes. But Rondo ran out of gas and got little support from his teammates. He finished with 21 points, 10 assists and seven turnovers.

Pierce had one of his worst playoff games in recent memory, scoring just nine points on 4-of-18 shooting from the field and missing all six of his 3-pointers. Kevin Garnett had 12 points on 6-of-14 shooting and just five rebounds, while looking nowhere as sharp as he has for most of the postseason. The bench reverted back to non-factor status, adding just two points before extended garbage time late.

Chris Bosh played twice as many minutes as Game 5, logging 28 minutes in his second game from a three-week absence due to an abdominal strain. Bosh had seven points, six rebounds and plus-16 rating. His presence was a factor on both ends.